On the basis of notification of Slovenia received by the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) and on the basis of own control survey, the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority ordered to withdraw foodstuff “Crisp bread with garlic and onion” (packaging à 106 g, best before date 21. 4. 2011), which was found to contain gluten in amount of 154 mg/kg in food. However, the product was labelled as naturally free of gluten.

Normal food may be labelled as “naturally free of gluten” only if the gluten in food does not exceed the level of 20 mg/kg. Gluten is one of the allergens and foodstuffs containing such allergen at higher level than the allowable limit are due to possible impacts on the health of allergic persons classified as unsafe.

The cause of contamination is likely to consist in poor sanitisationof production equipment. Except the Czech Republic, the contaminated lot of this product was distributed to Slovenia and Slovakia as well. The contract producer for company RACIO Ltd., Břeclav, which deals with the product, was company POEX Velké Meziříčí JSC. The company RACIO Ltd. is currently withdrawing the lot of the product from the market, but due to the long expiration date consumers might still have it at home. CAFIA therefore does not recommend consumption of this foodstuff to people suffering from allergies.